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Writer's pictureChristal Marshall

Here is my response to when client's say "I Want the RAW files"





Okay, let's talk about it when a client asks for raw images and what should you do, okay?


So being in the business for 12 years so for me: that if a client is going to ask about raw images- One way to prevent that conversation is by having it written down in the contract. What exactly is given, if you need help with your contracts, I have a whole nother blog about that but I use Jotform for all of my contracts, my proposals, and all of my wording and I know exactly what they signed up for.



So there you go in the pre consult- You should also talk about that as well, that you're going to be giving edited images and was included in the contract, okay?


So let's say that they still ask for raw images, what I say and how I approach, you know it- “Look, all of these raw files have been processed through a program that's expensive called Photoshop or Lightroom- it takes many hours you know, going through each Each and every photo with my eyeS. So if you had hypothetically six seven hours to process these images, plus the knowledge and time to do so and the ability to learn -knock yourself out…”basically but say it in a nicer way and so usually that discourages them and say like “oh well, I don't I don't have the program to actually process or the knowledge or whatever.” And so that's a way that you can approach in a Nice way, obviously.


Or you can just say “Look, this is my art, my creative art. If you want me to re-edit them, you will have to pay for my re-editing. If you want them to be professionally retouched, I can recommend these professional retouchers.”


I usually don't have retouching done in my package and people can just pay extra for that, but that usually doesn't come up.


So if you have it stated in your contract, no RAWS. And if you've discussed it in your pre consult- And then you still are getting a question.


I would just approach it like “Hey, this is my art.- 've spent hours and hours, thousands of hours learning these programs, to process them. “If you didn't, like my work from the beginning, why did you hire me?”


So there's all of these things you have to think about.


That’s why the pre-consult is so important because they get to know your style, they get to know who you are.


They look through all of your Images. So maybe before you book someone, you think, “Have they seen a good sample of my work?”


Maybe I can send them a PDF of, you know, this season's backdrops, Styles, layouts, whatever. And so they know exactly what they're going to beginning. How many images, what's included in the cost of other stuff so that they know everything.


So there will be no questions after the session- and it will be like, “Thank you so much, we had a great time “ boom”.


And so that's why they have pre-session consult, prepping your client, doing a phone chat and getting to know and having that trust level with them is so important.


Okay, so there we go.


There's my answer in a nutshell when somebody asked me. Hey, do you can I have the Raws? what my response would be.



What is your response to this question?






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